Baby Sitting

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Transcript of Baby Sitting

Baby SittingBy Gillian ClarkeStructureThemeImageryI am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong baby. I don’t love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout

Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk–familiar comforting, She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. RhythmRhymeDictionI am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong baby. I don’t love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk–familiar comforting, She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. I am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong BaBy. I don’t love This BaBy. She is sleePing a

snuffly Roseate, BuBBling sleep; she is fair; She is a Perfectly accePtaBle child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes

She will hate me. She will shout Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the Perfume Of her Breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent aBsolute ABandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely

Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the Bleached Bone in the terminal ward. As she rises

soBBing from the monstrous land

Stretching for milk–familiar comforting,

She will find me and Between us two It will not come. It will not come. PlosivesThere are lots and lots of plosives in the poem 'Babysitting', these are written as Capital letters. Atthe beginning of the poem, Gillian Clark uses lots of plosives to create a sense of violence and anger. These plosives create a sense of anger and also give short sharp shocks of aggression.SibilanceSibilance can also be seen in the poem 'Babysitting', the sibilance has been put into italics. We think that Gillian Clarke uses sibilance to create an atmospherewhere although the person telling thispoem is angry, they are still trying tobe quiet because of the baby.Onomatopoeia'sThere are also a few onomatopoeia's in the poem 'Babysitting'. These have been written in bold. These Onomatopoeia's help us imagine what this person is feeling about the baby.I am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong baby. I don’t love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk–familiar comforting, She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. Caesura

In the poem 'Baby sitting', Gillian Clarke uses lots of caesurae. These pauses create a sense of anger and helping the reader dwell. It gives a sense of insecurity. An example is "sheets;worse than for the woman who waits"

VersesIn this poem, Clarke uses a décima structure. I am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong baby. I don’t love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk–familiar comforting, She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. The narrator is feeling out of place, like they don't want to be there.HatredSadnessUnloved Dis-comfortingGillian Clarke tells the poem in the babysitters point of view. She says at the end "It will not come." twice. This puts an uncomfortable feeling on the reader as the babysitter throughout the whole poem is uncomfortable.I am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong baby. I don’t love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk–familiar comforting, She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. In 'Baby sitting' there is no rhyme to show that this person is not comfortable being in that house. This also makes the reader feel uncomfortable.MetaphorsClarke uses some metaphors that are highlighted in red. Symbolism'The perfume of her breath will fail to enchant me' is one of many phrases that creates a sense of image. An example of Clarke's use of symbolism is when she describes the baby's breath like 'perfume' .EnjambementThis is also unusual as babies like to have comfort, which is exactly what this poem does not have.This poem doesn't have a set rhythm. Rhythm could resemble the rocking of the baby. Since this narrator does not 'love' the baby, she doesn't rock the baby/care for it.I am sitting in the wrong room listening For the wrong baby. I don’t love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me.

To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk–familiar comforting, She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. Enjambement creates a sense of flow. Inthis poem enjambement is only in certain places such as the end of the first verse.The narrator is nervous as this is not her baby so she doesnot feel accustomed to it.The poem looks at a babysitter’s feelings baby-sitting somebody else’s baby and wishing it was theirs. The poem begins with a sense of feeling out of place in ‘a strange room’ not at home, listening ‘for the wrong baby’. This is because she does not love ‘this baby’.This perhaps symbolizes that however hard the narrator tries to love this baby, she cannot bring herself to it.The baby is asleep, which is described as: ‘sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep’ the use of alliteration ‘sleeping a snuffly’ express the breathing sounds of the baby, as does the onomatopoeic ‘bubbling’ sound. Alliteration and onomatopoeiaShe fears that if the child wakes ‘she will hate me’ as she will make lots of noise and ‘shout her hot midnight rage’ the ‘h’ alliteration emphasising the harshness of the sounds she may make if she wakes up.The fact that this is not what she wants is emphasised at the end by the repetition of ‘it will not come’ at the end which really emphasises the sense of emptiness and loneliness felt by both the baby and the baby sitter.There isn't rhythm in this poem at all. By having no rhythm, when the poem is spoken it is harder to read and it makes the reader feel uncomfortable -the same way that the narrator is feeling.Questions??